REUTERS - Former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has urged Ryan Giggs to accept the challenge of being a manager and felt it was time the Welshman stood on his own two feet after he ended his 29-year association with club on Saturday.

Giggs won 13 Premier League titles as a player under Ferguson and made a record 963 appearances for United before managing them for four matches on an interim basis following the sacking of David Moyes in 2014.

The 42-year-old Giggs worked as assistant manager under Louis van Gaal but followed the Dutchman out of Old Trafford after being offered a reduced role under United's new boss Jose Mourinho, according to British media reports.

"It is time Ryan stood on his own feet, got out there and accepted the challenge. He has a bit of steel about him," Ferguson told the BBC.

"It is such a highly intense results industry, you need people who go into it to have a bit of steel about them, a bit of character and personality.

"I think he is ready to manage and he has a lot of quality. He doesn't want to spoil that quality by going to a club where it is sacking a manager every two minutes."

Giggs, however, said he had "no immediate plans" to step into management.

Mourinho has appointed his long-term assistant Rui Faria, whom he has worked with since 2002, to help him at United and Ferguson could not fault the Portuguese coach for his decision.

"If Jose hadn't had an assistant, I know he would have taken Ryan. You have got to have, in your assistant, someone you have trusted all your life," the 74-yaer-old said.

"When I came to United, I brought Archie Knox because he was a valuable person for me. I trusted him 100 percent. Jose Mourinho has had his assistant for years and, quite rightly, has stuck by his own man."

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Ken Ferris)